So I called my gym to see why the monthly payments haven't been coming out of my checking account and I got nowhere.

I first called the registration desk and was told I had to talk to the front desk. The woman who answered the phone said I better talk to the manager so she transferred me to him. He wasn't in, so I left a message explaining the situation and asked that he call me back.

Still no phone call, so I figure I've done my part and now the ball's in the gym's court.

I haven't been posting much lately aside from the occasional notice saying I was adding the challenge or selling something on eBay. (Summer with a kid will do that to you....)

I'm going to try to be better about it, beginning with the results of a phone call to my gym tomorrow asking why they haven't been taking my monthly $65 payments out of my checking account for the last three months.

I noticed it back in May, but thought it was a fluke. But this week I realized they still haven't taken out any payments.

I could just let it slide and keep going to the gym for free, but then karma would probably come back to bite me in the butt in the form of some outlandish bill down the road so I'm going to fess up.

(By the way, that's $65 for a family membership, not an individual membership -- and we need it for swimming, which is big in our household.)

I sold one of my daughter's toys on eBay today and after shipping costs and fees, I made $11.95. I'm adding this to the challenge, so my new total is $11,061.10.

More importantly, this marks the beginning of my Vespa fund, which I'm now tracking over there on the left.

I got a booming business check in the mail yesterday and after paying taxes and setting some aside to cover my basic expenses, I have $126.29 to add to the challenge.

My new total is $11,049.15.

A no-spend day and a no-drive day today! I got the floors cleaned, but still need to get some booming business work done tonight....

My daughter is spending the day with my sister, so I'm thinking a no-spend -- AND no-drive -- day might be possible today.

I've got tons of work for the booming business that needs to be done (plus I need to clean the carpet). And, I've got the makings of a tuna fish sandwich for lunch. I see no need to leave the house today....

The mailman brought a $10 Starbucks card today courtesy of MyPoints. Life is good....

Yes, I achieved a no-spend day. We did go to the library and tennis lessons, but didn't spend any money while we were out.

We had leftovers for lunch and I even made a special dessert involving peaches and ice cream so we won't be tempted to hit DQ tonight.

It's going to be 95 degrees again today and we're all in need of some vegging out time here, so I'm going to try to limit our outings to the library and tennis today -- and hopefully create a no-spend day out of my self-imposed seclusion.

With any luck, I'll also get more stuff listed on eBay today for the Vespa fund. So far, I've listed two things and have no bids to show for it....

My husband and I have decided to invest in a Vespa for me to use for putting around in the 'hood. Although it's a rare day that I don't drive, it's rare that I drive more than a few miles away. (I would walk, but the Midget wouldn't put up with it for long....)

So to pay for the scooter, I've decided to save all my eBay money and put it toward the purchase, which we hope to make next April or May. (I'll probably also put money from the booming business toward the Vespa, which will cost about $7,000).

I'm also keeping track of all my trips and indicating whether they were potential Vespa trips or "car" trips. And I'm going to log my gas mileage. (I'm pretty sure this will all show that a Vespa will ultimately safe us big bucks.)

Off to post some stuff on eBay now....

My lawn service just sent me a notice saying they're adding a $3 gas surcharge. They only come out every few months to fertilize and/or aerate but suddenly doing those things myself isn't looking too bad....

Without even trying, I managed a no-spend day. I don't know how it happened. The money's just been flying out of here like crazy lately, but today I must have done something right....

In lieu of paying a couple hundred bucks to see our Major League team play baseball this weekend, we drove down south Friday and saw the minor league team an hour away. Tickets for the minor league game were $30 for all three of us, plus they put on a great fireworks display afterward.(I thought of you, Gamecock.)

We then spent the next two nights in a bed and breakfast in a nearby town. Thanks to the huge breakfast each morning and a late lunch (and some carefully thoughtout snacks of popcorn, cheese, crackers, pepperoni and fruit that we kept in our cottage), we spent very little on food so we were able to enjoy a trip to the local zoo and then took a cog railroad up a mountain peak today.

We packed the rest of the snacks from our cottage to eat on the train, but did treat my daughter to homemade doughnuts and hot chocolate at the mountaintop snackbar.

We, in turn, were then treated to a woman with four kids having a meltdown over the price of the two trays of junk food her family had loaded up on at the snack bar ($92 worth of pizzas and fries). I was terribly embarrassed for her kids, especially when their mom dumped everything on the counter after yelling at the teen cashier and turned around and left it all.

Overall, though, it was a very good -- and low cost -- weekend getaway.